Former deputy minority leader of House of Representatives, Emmanuel Arigbe-Osula, has welcomed the defection of Deputy Speaker of Kaduna State House of Assembly, Auta Zankai, from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Labour Party (LP) as a breakthrough for Peter Obi.
Arigbe-Osula, a one-time associate of President Muhammadu Buhari said the defection of Zankai and another incumbent member, Suleiman Dabo, Zaria State constituency from APC to Labour Party has proved to skeptics that Obi is now a national project.
The defection of Zankai and Dabo was announced last Thursday. According to the former Edo lawmaker: “For several of us who were quick to see the Obi-Datti presidential aspiration as the answer to years of leadership deficit that Nigeria has for long suffered, this news is, indeed, cheering. It is a rebuff to the claim that Obi cannot win in the North.
“That puerile argument projects the claim that northerners who have suffered like many others under the present administration love the yoke that has been imposed on them. That is a lie and the fact that the deputy speaker and a member of the House in the ancient capital of the North have buckled is an indication that the message is making progress.
“I enjoin other northerners and, indeed, other Nigerians who have heard the message of liberty to shake off the yoke as represented by the APC and the Peoples Democratic Party and join the moving train as led by Obi and Datti to put Nigeria on the path of progress.”
